In the Largest Heist Ever, Hackers take $1.5 Billion from Cryptocurrency Exchange Bybit

Nitin Konde, Varun Bhardwaj

24 Feb 2025 — 2 min read

Bybit Suffers $1.5B Crypto Hack, Biggest Heist in History

About $1.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency tokens were taken from Bybit by hackers in what the digital asset exchange called the worst crime in the history of the sector. The CEO of Bybit, Ben Zhou, said in a post on X that Ethereum tokens were being stolen from the company's offline, or "cold," wallet. Later, in a live-stream update, Zhou stated that, to the best of the company's knowledge, this may be the biggest hack in the history of the cryptocurrency business.

Zhou claimed that although there had been a rush to leave the market, things had cooled down. According to him, the website was receiving a bridging loan from its partners and would reimburse consumers for any coins that it was unable to retrieve. The attack is a setback for the cryptocurrency business, which has been booming in recent months due to hopes that the Trump administration will be more accepting of digital assets.

Crypto Industry’s Security taken for Ride by Hackers

Since the beginning of the crypto business, large-scale thefts have been a persistent problem that has brought attention to security issues. About 25,000 bitcoins, valued at about $470 million at the time, were lost by Mt. Gox in 2011, which was the preferred location for most bitcoin transactions at the time.

In October 2022, a glitch in a smart contract—a computer software that takes action automatically when specific criteria are met—was found to be the cause of the $570 million that was lost from the Binance exchange. On Friday, Zhou acknowledged that approximately 400,000 coins, valued at approximately $1.5 billion, had been stolen. After Bitcoin and Tether—a so-called stablecoin whose value is based on the US dollar—Ethereum is the third most traded cryptocurrency.

Donald Trump’s TRUMP

Donald Trump claims he "doesn't know much" about cryptocurrencies, which has led to criticism of his recent introduction of his own digital currency. After making an appearance on his social media channels, the digital currency known as TRUMP swiftly rose to prominence as one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies, but its value has subsequently dropped dramatically.

It draws attention to security issues in the digital currency market, which was hoped for a boost in confidence following Mr. Trump's coin debut. Elon Musk, his adviser and the multibillionaire owner of Tesla, has previously promoted Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox declared bankruptcy in 2014 after a security flaw allowed $350 million (£210 million) worth of digital currency to be stolen. Another significant cryptocurrency theft occurred in 2019 when hackers took $41 million worth of Bitcoin from the Binance exchange.